Paterno v. State of California ruling by third Appellate District Count determined the state of California liable for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars because state accepted levee without any measures to ensure it met design standards and then failed in 1986 flood.

Legal settlement among a coalition of environmental and fishing groups, the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce and the Friant Water Users Authority ending an 18 year legal battle over claims to release water from Friant Dam to maintain a live stream for fish to the Merced River.

2008 Public Policy institute of California issues report saying a peripheral canal is best Delta conveyance for meeting co-equal goals of healthy Delta ecosystem and water supply reliability.

2009 U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger rules federal government did not analyze impact of Delta Smelt protection rules on water exporters. Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a comprehensive water package designed to achieve the co-equal goals.

USGS report finds that about 60 million acre-feet of groundwater has been lost in the San Joaquin Valley since 1961.

2010 Judge Wanger rules the federal government failed to consider impacts to water users when it restricted pumping from Delta to protect Chinook spring-run salmon and other fish.

Final Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric settlement Agreement were signed. The implementation was contingent on authorizing legislation, funding and environmental review.

The final chapters of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) are released in May by Governor Jerry Brown’s administration proposing long-term Delta restoration and promoting a more reliable statewide water supply through the creation of twin tunnels to move water beneath the Delta to the existing state and federal pumping facilities. Public comment began in October.

2014 Gov. Jerry Brown signs legislation creating local agencies to oversee groundwater pumping, making California the last state in the West to regulate groundwater.

Brown signs a $7.5 billion water bond that will go before California voters in November. The bond contains for $2.7 billion for new storage, $1.49 billion for watershed restoration, $810 million for water reliability projects, $520 million for water quality projects, $725 million for water recycling, $900 million for groundwater cleanup and $395 million for flood management.

California voters approve the water bond with about 67 percent of the vote.

2015 In the midst of a four-year drought, Gov. Jerry Brown orders first-ever, statewide water reductions aimed at urban California on April 1, 2015.

2017 - A crater in Oroville Dam’s concrete spillway forces DWR to temporarily halt releases from the reservoir in order to inspect the damage. Water poured over the emergency spillway for the first time in the dam’s history, eroding the dirt hillside. Fearing a catastrophe, officials ordered that people evacuate from the city of Oroville and surrounding environs as a precautionary measure.

2017 – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service conclude that the construction of new diversion points on the Sacramento River and two water tunnels would not jeopardize the existence of endangered species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.